High Caffeine May Lower Ear Ringing Sensation in Women

[Deanna]

I would be curious what your thoughts are about this. I am VERY new here and saw this article today. Thank you for your thoughts and support!

http://paktribune.com/news/High-caffeine-may-lower-ear-ringing-sensation-in-women-270778.html

High caffeine may lower ear ringing sensation in women
09 August, 2014

ISLAMABAD: If you are a woman and suffering from ringing or buzzing sound in the ear when there is no outside source of the sounds, increase your tea and coffee intake.

According to new research, women with a higher intake of caffeine had a lower incidence of unexplained ear ringing.

Higher caffeine intake is associated with lower rates of tinnitus in younger and middle-aged women, it added.

The study followed more than 65,000 women. Researchers tracked self-reported results regarding lifestyle and medical history from these women, aged 30 to 44 years and without tinnitus in 1991.

After 18 years of follow up, researchers identified 5,289 cases of reported incident tinnitus.

"We observed a significant inverse association between caffeine intake and the incidence of tinnitus among these women," said Gary Curhan, a physician-researcher at the Channing Division of Network Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) in Boston, Massachusetts.

Significantly, researchers found that when compared with women with caffeine intake less than 150 milligrams/day (one and a half 8-ounce cups of coffee), the incidence of reported tinnitus was 15 percent lower among those women who consumed 450 to 599 mg/day of caffeine.

The majority of caffeine consumed among the women was from coffee and the results did not vary by age.

"We know that caffeine stimulates the central nervous system and previous research has demonstrated that caffeine has a direct effect on the inner ear in both bench science and animal studies," Curhan noted.

Researchers note that further evidence is needed to make any recommendations about whether the addition of caffeine would improve tinnitus symptoms.

The research appeared in the journal American Journal of Medicine.

 

[t-man]

I don't know why it is only women effected.

 

[derpytia]

Most people who have T that I know will tell you to stay off the caffeine because it increases the loudness of their T or makes it worse somehow. To me this article sounds like it only applies to those who have fleeting T and not chronic T.

 

[Markku]

Most people who have T that I know will tell you to stay off the caffeine because it increases the loudness of their T or makes it worse somehow. To me this article sounds like it only applies to those who have fleeting T and not chronic T.

And then there's this:

http://psychcentral.com/lib/experts-challenge-caffeine-tinnitus-link/0002752

"Caffeine had no effect on tinnitus severity," the researchers state.

"Many professionals support caffeine withdrawal as a tinnitus therapy, even though there is a lack of any relevant evidence, and, in fact, acute symptoms of caffeine withdrawal might even make tinnitus worse."

The sample size could have been larger though, but interesting anyway...

 

[MikeA]

Many people with T will claim all sorts of foods, beverages, medications etc make their T worse. Interesting that the investigators proposed this study after reports that stopping caffeine intake worsened T. Large epidemiological studies of this type are valuable to help distinguish true signal from data 'noise'.

 

[t-man]

I drink coffee the odd time and I can't say for certain if it has any effect. Some times it's quiet and sometimes it's loud. If anything the caffeine is probably just keeping my mind stimulated and I can't tune out the T when trying to sleep.

My tinnitus is always worse when I'm not tired and trying to fall a sleep.

 

[Steve]

I think this may be an older piece of research that was conducted with nurses. If so it's a huge lifestyle project and tinnitus was a single question out of a large project.

Stories like this have a big headline, we really need to understand the quality of the research behind it. It's all in the detail, how was the question asked, was it a leading question, were there other factors involved that could have distorted the results?

If it is a tinnitus study we would expect it to be fairly reliable. If however it is a study into obesity, for example, where there is a single question about tinnitus thrown in, the results aren't as reliable and we really need to know the other variables t get a better picture.

Research projects can throw out some funny results, often they are influenced by other things, sometimes by badly phrased questions.

 

[washashore]

I drink tons of coffee. But I'm a dude. I better get a sex change.

 

[erik]

I also drank my way thru tons of caffeine for years before I got T. Then I stopped now I am back on caffeine. Either way, it has not affected my T whatsoever

 

[Ray Seddon]

Agreed. I am a coffee addict and although my T has increased in volume over recent years I doubt it has anything to do with coffee. These 'research' things are popping up all the time - coffee's bad, coffee's good, this is bad, this is good, etc. I tend to ignore it all, everything in moderation I think...

 

[MikeA]

I think this may be an older piece of research that was conducted with nurses. If so it's a huge lifestyle project and tinnitus was a single question out of a large project.

Correct. The tinnitus study involved individuals from the Nurses' Health Studies.

http://www.channing.harvard.edu/nhs/

From the web page:
The Nurses' Health Studies are among the largest and longest running investigations of factors that influence women's health.

This is essentially a huge pool of health information that can be investigated in countless ways. In this case a hypothesis (coffee intake lowers incidence of T) was formed and upon investigation the null hypothesis was accepted given the information gleaned from interviews of nurses during follow-up study visits. I agree that associations found in these studies need to be further investigated in carefully controlled experiments.

 

[Ricky81]

Not sure if caffeine will stop existing Tinnitus condition.

http://www.universityherald.com/art...igh-caffeine-intake-may-cut-tinnitus-risk.htm

A new study has given coffee lovers even more reason to celebrate their caffeine addiction.

Researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital found that people with a higher intake of caffeine has a lower incidence of tinnitus, often described as a ringing or buzzing sound in the ear "when there is no outside source of the sounds, in younger and middle-aged women, Counsel and Heal reported.

 

[LadyDi]

Below is a link to the NYTimes story on the same.
This study does NOT say that once you have tinnitus, you can get rid of it by drinking coffee.

I think many (but not all) people here at TT have found once you have tinnitus, it helps to cut back on the caffeine as its a neurological stimulant.


http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/...tus-risk/?_php=true&_type=blogs&emc=eta1&_r=0

 

[Karen]

I used to be a heavy caffeine drinker (diet sodas). When my tinnitus worsened, I went off the diet drinks "cold turkey", which was probably a mistake. I think it's better to taper off them gradually.

Anyway, these days (four years later), I drink some caffeine, but mostly decaf tea and water now. I can't tell any difference in my T when I drink caffeine. I think it just depends on the individual.

 

[LadyDi]

Hey @Karen. I agree. Initially I did a hard purge of caffeine, and it did help some (I drank a lot of coffee) But now I have added some caffeine back in and have noticed no T volume difference. I am glad, however, that thanks to T, I do drink less caffeine now. I needed to cut back.

 

[Karen]

Same here, @LadyDi. I probably never would have gotten myself off the diet sodas if it hadn't been for the tinnitus. I had been wanting to cut back on them for a long time. Maybe some good came from the T after all!

 

[J-rod]

I used to be a heavy caffeine drinker (diet sodas). When my tinnitus worsened, I went off the diet drinks "cold turkey", which was probably a mistake. I think it's better to taper off them gradually.

Anyway, these days (four years later), I drink some caffeine, but mostly decaf tea and water now. I can't tell any difference in my T when I drink caffeine. I think it just depends on the individual.

I guess it would be nice to separate the effects of "T" from different caffeine sources. Should we blame caffeine itself or the other ingredients that come gift wrapped with it? I'm trying to distract myself from Mr.T, so bare with me as I dribble on.... I was reading my Cherry Pepsi bottle label, and noticed so many things that could cause T issues. Going down the list we start with Sugar, or should I say is really mostly one form or another of Corn because it is cheaper and has a longer shelf life than sugar, and I'beat probably made from GMO Corn and that brings another can of worms to the table. Would be simple to blame Sugar for all of our problems because in many ways it's the average Americans Crack and God given right. My mother has diabetes and I'm slowly headed down the same path; a truly frightening prospect for my future.

Then we have Citric Acid, depending on the source, most often from corn, it could be cheaply manufactured in ways that do not take out the proteins which can be hydrolyzed to create MSG. Citric Acid, on its own is relatively harmless, that is unless it comes from source along with the proteins, but more importantly diet drinks have it mixed with other substances. When Citric Acid is combined with potassium or sodium benzoate during storage, and especially at raised temperatures, it can aid the formation of carcinogenic benzene. There are many carcinogenic benzene poisonings cases that have happened to our military personal, and they thought it was chemical warfare agents from the war.. perhaps they are right.

Clearly the diet drinks don't have sugar, so I can't blame our holy sugar-crack for Tinnitus necessarily. However more importantly the artificial sweeteners such as aspartame is similar to monosodium glutamate in that they both are excitatory neurotransmitters. That is, they excite brain neurons and increase levels of electrical activity in the brain and the auditory cortex, the area where tinnitus is perceived.

The caramel color may be processed with caustic chemicals, such as sulfites or ammonia, both are known to cause hair loss. Although purely hypothetical on my part and not based on any direct facts of any kind, my suspicion is that auditory hair cells would share a similar fate.. both are hairs. And I could go on for days with food coloring, coffee vs tea, other natural substances, but to save time i'll stop now for the sake of our sanity and just enjoy my plain coffee without all the other stuff..

 

[frohike]

After 18 years of follow-up, 5,289 incident cases of tinnitus were reported, showing a significant inverse association between the amount of caffeine intake and the incidence of tinnitus. The cause is unknown.

http://communications.uwo.ca/wester...mber/study_debunks_caffeinetinnitus_myth.html

An apple a day may keep the doctor away. But what fun is that? A study led by Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry resident researcher Dr. Jordan Glicksman shows higher caffeine intake from coffee was associated with a reduced risk of hearing loss, or tinnitus, a condition characterized by ringing, swishing or other noises that appear to be originating in the ear or head.

Not normally a dangerous or serious problem, tinnitus is usually a symptom of some other underlying condition. Age-related hearing loss, ear injury, foreign objects in the ear and circulatory system problems, for example, may cause the condition.

Glicksman, a resident in Otolaryngology (Head and Neck Surgery), got interested in this work while he was preparing to start a Master's of Public Health at Harvard University, and was offered to do research evaluating risk factors for tinnitus.

"Caffeine has long been thought to be a risk factor, or an exacerbating factor, for tinnitus, but I could not find any good evidence to support this idea," he said. "I wanted to see if any association really did exist, since this is a rather mainstream belief, but the origin of the purported association was unclear."

Using data from the U.S.-based Nurses' Health Studies II, a database of the largest and longest-running investigations of factors that influence women's health, Glicksman studied more than 65,000 women, aged 30-44 years, who had completed questionnaires about lifestyle and medical history every two years, and food frequency questionnaires every four years, since 1991.

For the group, caffeine intake was found to be an average of 242.3mg, or about two to three cups of coffee each day. After 18 years of follow-up, 5,289 incident cases of tinnitus were reported, showing a significant inverse association between the amount of caffeine intake and the incidence of tinnitus.

"We looked at caffeine from a wide variety of food and beverage sources, but coffee happened to be the biggest contributor in terms of sources of caffeine intake," said Glicksman, adding caffeine contributors also looked at pop, tea and chocolate. "As a result, we looked to see if decaffeinated coffee had a similar association, and it did not. This suggests the association is due to caffeine, rather than another component of coffee."

With this being the first study Glicksman is aware that specifically looked at caffeine and the onset of tinnitus – and since the database was composed only predominantly Caucasian women – it is unknown whether the findings can apply to men or other racial groups.

"That being said, I can't think of a good reason why the association would be different," he said.

While such findings are interesting, and will likely open the door to further questions, Glicksman stressed increasing caffeine intake is, in no way, a cure for tinnitus. The precise pathophysiology underlying subjective tinnitus remains unknown.

"It is very important to emphasize this," he said. "We don't have a good explanation as to why caffeine would be protective, and have been very careful to use the word 'association' rather than other stronger language.

"We know that plenty of women (including in our study) develop tinnitus despite very high caffeine consumption. What I think is most interesting is our study seems to dispel a longstanding medical belief that caffeine causes or exacerbates tinnitus."

 

[Kathi]

If the study is true then I shouldn't have gotten T. I used to drink a lot of coffee and diet sodas. I quit both when I got T because of caffeine and aspartame. I think being off caffeine helps me sleep better.

 

[jazz]

Caffeine affects my sleep, but not my tinnitus. But aspartame does make my tinnitus scream.

 

[Blair14]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/1...day-protect-against-tinnitus-study-finds.html

Certainly didn't do me any good. Coffee is supposed to be a no, no or moderation at best. I guess it must be a slow news day!

 

[FuzzyFrey]

For someone like me who has anxiety issues, I stay away from the coffee. Five cups a day to me is a lot of coffee! It'd probably do us more harm than good!